RECIPES FOR KIDS (AND ADULTS)

I recently had a 1st grade class in the library, and one of the students asked if we had any cook books. I was sure that we did, but I had never thought to look for our section of student cook books. Let me tell you, I am so glad that this student brought this section of our library to my attention. Just like gardening, I believe that baking/cooking can be so empowering to children because they do the work and then they have a product at the end that they have created. How cool! The recipes in these cook books for kids are easy and FUN (although the kids should still create the food with adult supervision, of course).

Mrs. Keeney and I were browsing through a couple of the books the other day, and we found some TASTY recipes. One book in particular caught our attention: "Indoor S'mores and Other Tasty Treats for Special Occasions" by Nick Fauchald. It's from a series of books called "Kids Dish", and all of the books are worth checking out. They group the recipes by difficulty level (Easy, Intermediate, Advanced) and the directions come with words AND pictures. I found a few recipes that I am excited to make over the weekend, and I posted one of my favorites below just to show how cool these books are. I will let you know how it turns out after I make it this weekend.

There is now a cook book display at the back of the library, so feel free to check out some of these fun books for yourself, or encourage your students to check them out!

Campout Banana Boats

Ingredients:
4 bananas
1/4 cup mini marshmallows
1/4 cup chocolate chips
4 teaspoons brown sugar

Tools:
butter knife, cutting board, measuring cups, measuring spoons, 4 12-inch squares of aluminum foil, baking sheet, oven mitts

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (with parent supervision).
2. Remove peel from one side of a banana.
3. Use the butter knife to cut a small wedge out of the banana.
4. Place 1/4 of the marshmallows, 1/4 of the chocolate chips, and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar into the wedge of each banana.
5. Cover the banana with the banana peel. Wrap each banana tightly in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet.
6. Ask an adult to bake the wrapped bananas for 8 minutes or until the chocolate has melted. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.